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PPPCTL(8) FreeBSD System Manager's Manual PPPCTL(8)
NAMEpppctl -- PPP control program
SYNOPSISpppctl [-v] [-tn] [-ppasswd] [host:]Port | LocalSocket
[command[;command]...]
DESCRIPTION
This utility provides command line control of the ppp(8) daemon. Its
primary use is to facilitate simple scripts that control a running dae-
mon.
The pppctl utility is passed at least one argument, specifying the socket
on which ppp is listening. Refer to the `set server' command of ppp for
details. If the socket contains a leading '/', it is taken as an
AF_LOCAL socket. If it contains a colon, it is treated as a host:port
pair, otherwise it is treated as a TCP port specification on the local
machine (127.0.0.1). Both the host and port may be specified numerically
if you wish to avoid a DNS lookup or do not have an entry for the given
port in /etc/services.
All remaining arguments are concatenated to form the command(s) that will
be sent to the ppp daemon. If any semi-colon characters are found, they
are treated as command delimiters, allowing more than one command in a
given `session'. For example:
pppctl 3000 set timeout 300\; show timeout
Do not forget to escape or quote the ';' as it is a special character for
most shells.
If no command arguments are given, pppctl enters interactive mode, where
commands are read from standard input. When reading commands, the
editline(3) library is used, allowing command-line editing (with
editrc(5) defining editing behaviour). The history size defaults to 20lines.
The following command line options are available:
-v Display all data sent to and received from the ppp daemon. Nor-
mally, pppctl displays only non-prompt lines received. This
option is ignored in interactive mode.
-tn Use a timeout of n instead of the default 2 seconds when connect-
ing. This may be required if you wish to control a daemon over a
slow (or even a dialup) link.
-ppasswd
Specify the password required by the ppp daemon. If this switch
is not used, pppctl will prompt for a password once it has suc-
cessfully connected to ppp.
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variables are understood by pppctl when in
interactive mode:
EL_SIZE The number of history lines. The default is 20.
EL_EDITOR The edit mode. Only values of "emacs" and "vi" are accepted.
Other values are silently ignored. This environment variable
will override the bind-v and bind-e commands in ~/.editrc.
EXAMPLES
If you run ppp in -auto mode, pppctl can be used to automate many fre-
quent tasks (you can actually control ppp in any mode except interactive
mode). Use of the -p option is discouraged (even in scripts that are not
readable by others) as a ps(1) listing may reveal your secret.
The best way to allow easy, secure pppctl access is to create a local
server socket in /etc/ppp/ppp.conf (in the correct section) like this:
set server /var/run/internet "" 0177
This will instruct ppp to create a local domain socket, with srw-------
permissions and no password, allowing access only to the user that
invoked ppp. Refer to the ppp(8) man page for further details.
You can now create some easy-access scripts. To connect to the internet:
#! /bin/sh
test $# -eq 0 && time=300 || time=$1
exec pppctl /var/run/internet set timeout $time\; dial
To disconnect:
#! /bin/sh
exec pppctl /var/run/internet set timeout 300\; close
To check if the line is up:
#! /bin/sh
pppctl -p '' -v /var/run/internet quit | grep ^PPP >/dev/null
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
echo Link is up
else
echo Link is down
fi
You can even make a generic script:
#! /bin/sh
exec pppctl /var/run/internet "$@"
You could also use pppctl to control when dial-on-demand works. Suppose
you want ppp to run all the time, but you want to prevent dial-out
between 8pm and 8am each day. However, any connections active at 8pm
should continue to remain active until they are closed or naturally time
out.
A cron(8) entry for 8pm which runs
pppctl /var/run/internet set filter dial 0 deny 0 0
will block all further dial requests, and the corresponding 8am entry
pppctl /var/run/internet set filter dial -1
will allow them again.
SEE ALSOps(1), editline(3), editrc(5), services(5), ppp(8)HISTORY
The pppctl utility first appeared in FreeBSD 2.2.5.
FreeBSD 10.1 June 26, 1997 FreeBSD 10.1